YULO, ARCHER TAGLE DOMINATE PALARO

MEMBERS of the Taichung Highschool representing Western Visayas turn hysterical on the court for an amazing reason—they just beat National University of the National Capital Region in the girls’ secondary volleyball final. BERNARD TESTA

By Josef Ramos

KARL ELDREW YULO wielded the broom in boys’ gymnastics where he was a cut above the rest and won six gold medals, the same number of titles Naina Dominique Tagle bagged in girls’ archery on the penultimate day Friday of the Palarong Pambansa.

It wasn’t easy as you think it is,” the 15-year-old Yulo humbly told BusinessMirror. “My parents are my motivation here. So after this I will go back to training. No rest after this.”

It was a no-contest for Yulo.

Trained in Japan and polished by international competitions, the younger brother of world champion and Olympian Carlos Yulo topped the floor exercise (13.500), horizontal bar (9.00), vault (13.95) and horse (9.250) apparatuses gold to go with his alaround gold he clinched the other day.

He also led the National Capital Region (NCR) to secondary boys’ team gold medal in artistic gymnastics at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

W hile Yulo was dominating the field in Manila, Tagle was doing her own thing at the STI Gold Toe Archery Center in host city Marikina.

The young pride of archery hotbed Dumaguete City and Central Visayas led her team to the girls’ secondary team gold that went with her triumphs in the 30 meters (338), 50m (308), 60m (327) and FITA Round.

“I wasn’t aiming for gold, I just wanted to do my best and God did the rest,” said Tagle, a 10th grader at Siliman University, long regarded as the country’s epicenter of archery. “But during the gold medal matches, I thought about my Nanay. It’s her birthday and I wanted to dedicate my wins to her.”

Her mom Fe Marie Tagle turned 47 on Friday.

I n volleyball, Western Visayas beat NCR’s National University, 1825, 25-20, 19-25, 25-16, 18-16, to win the girls’ secondary gold medal, Central Luzon defeated Central Visayas, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 17-25, 15-12, in the boys’ secondary final.

NCR seized the lead in the medal tally with 56 gold, 52 silvers and 39 bronze medals late Friday, while West- ern Visayas slid to second with a 4533-29 gold-silverbronze haul.

Southern Tagalog was third with 35-44-41 and Central Luzon dropped to fourth with 22-24-34.

Jie Angela Mikaela Talosig of SOCCSKSARGEN and Paolo Miguel Labanon of Davao Region, meanwhile, wound up with four gold medals each after the last day of swimming at the Marikina Sports Center pool. Talosig, 17, got her fourth gold in girls’ secondary 800-meter freestyle and missed a fifth mint after her team finished sixth in the 4x100 relay. She earlier won the 1,500m, 400m and 200m freestyle events.

Labanon topped the 200 and 400 butterfly and 1500 earlier this week and added the 800 freestyle gold on Friday.

In athletics, Bicol Region’s Jan Jose Alaon won gold in elementary boys’ 1500 meters in 4:53.843 and Jewel Courtney Trangia topped the secondary girls’ discus throw with 35.66m. Jazen Araño won gold in girls’ secondary shot put with 10.66m.